(Bloomberg News) R. Allen Stanford, the indicted financier, sued U.S. prosecutors and agents of the FBI and Securities and Exchange Commission, accusing them of "abusive law enforcement" and seeking $7.2 billion in damages.
Stanford, who has been held without bail since being indicted in 2009, filed the lawsuit February 16 at the U.S. courthouse in Houston. Meanwhile, Stanford has been moved to a prison hospital for treatment of an anxiety-drug habit he acquired in jail while awaiting trial on charges that he swindled investors of $7 billion.
"Mr. Stanford contends the named and unknown agents undertook illegal tactics to prosecute Mr. Stanford, starting with a civil prosecution by the SEC," according to the complaint. The SEC sued him two years ago yesterday.
The Texas financier alleges the federal government has used more than $51 million of his own assets to pursue the cases against him. "The agents have engaged in unfair, abusive law-enforcement methods and tactics," he alleged.
Kevin Callahan, an SEC spokesman, declined in an e-mail yesterday to comment on Stanford's lawsuit. Citing a court-imposed gag order in the criminal case, Laura Sweeney, a Justice Department spokeswoman, also declined to comment.
The case is R. Allen Stanford v. Stephen Korotosh, 11cv582, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas (Houston).
The criminal case is U.S. v. Stanford, 09cr342, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas (Houston). The SEC case is Securities and Exchange Commission v. Stanford International Bank Ltd., 09cv298, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas (Dallas).